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Beware dangerous fads: kids are eating Tide Pods

By:

Joshua Waddles

Staff Writer

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Malvern, AR

Kids and even young adults have imitated viral video stunts are challenges for years. Many are mostly harmless, such as The Ice Bucket Challenge or the classic of dropping an Alka-Seltzer into a bottle of coke to make it erupt like a geyser. But some of the challenges put teens in the hospital, and many otherwise smart young people can’t resist the idea their video could go viral, even with obvious risks.

Kids are eating Tide Pods.

Since Tide Pods were first introduced in 2012, people have joked about eating them. These packaged plastic pods of condensed soap look strangely like candy, but just recently teenagers on the internet have started daring people to actually post videos of themselves eating them. Videos of teenagers spitting up, coughing or vomiting have gone viral and although YouTube is trying to remove these videos, it’s impossible to hide these videos from teenagers because there are always people who repost viral videos they’ve downloaded.

It should not be assumed that a young person, even a level headed one, knows better than to attempt the Tide Pod Challenge or any other stunt seen on the internet. These dangerous stunts are often accompanied by fake news claiming they’re totally safe when they’re not.

In addition to the Tide Pod Challenge, parents should be aware that new and dangerous fads pop up on the internet frequently. The Ice Bucket Challenge evolved into The Boiling Water Challenge, which resulted in several children being badly burned, including an 11 year old girl while she slept at a slumber party. Young people have also held ice over salt on their skin until it burned or poured rubbing alcohol all over themselves and set themselves on fire.